KATHMANDU, JANUARY 11: The hit-and-run cases are a frequent headache for the traffic police in Nepal. This is also because of the negligible use of technology to monitor traffic on the roads and highways throughout the country, including in the Kathmandu Valley.
Realising this, the Kathmandu Valley Traffic Police Office (VTPO), with support from the Kathmandu Metropolitan City, has adopted a new technology in the Valley that allows the police to monitor the vehicles plying on the roads in the Valley. The VTPO uses high-tech cameras called ‘automatic number plate recognition cameras (ANPRCs)’ that can read the vehicle number plate and the drivers’ activities behind the wheel.
The police believe that this technology will mainly help them monitor the drivers’ activities. The use of these advanced cameras will help the traffic police find out whether the person driving the vehicle has a fastened seat belt or not, or is smoking, or talking on his/her mobile.
Senior Superintendent of the police as well as spokesperson of the KVPO, Dinesh Raj Mainali, said that this technology will provide immense help in traffic policing as these devices read the number plate of a vehicle, capture photos of the activities up to the driver’s seat and send the information to the server. “For instance, a vehicle is involved in a hit-and-run incident and we only know the colour of that vehicle and not its number plate.
The cameras installed overhead the road read the number plate of the vehicles passing by that road and send it to the server. By scrutinizing the information in the server, we can know the number plate of all vehicles of that colour passing through the road. In this way, we can track the vehicle owner by coordinating with the Transport Office,” he explained.
This ANPR camera will contribute to providing fact-based information surrounding the incident. When verbal statements may be unreliable, technology and evidence will provide the facts, according to SSP Mainali. Presently, ANPR cameras are placed in the Munibhairabh, New Bus Park (Gongabu), and Maharajgunj areas. These advanced cameras boast the capability to accurately read number plates in the Nepali script and embossed formats, capturing and transmitting details promptly to the Kathmandu Valley’s police control room. Munibhairav and Maharajgunj each have four cameras while there are two cameras in the New Bus Park area.
The police expect the fixations of these cameras will significantly help identify details in ‘hit and run’ cases, where traditional investigations are often marred by challenges in identifying drivers and vehicles involved. The Kathmandu Metropolis has supported the installations of such comers.
KVPO plans to install an additional 170 ANPRCs in the Valley.
